To ask how many of you know about the Child Benefit Charge?

[Ballstothisdotcom]

I had to repay over £6k a couple of years ago. Had to get out a loan to do it. The children were mine and not my husbands and I had always claimed as a single parent so just didn’t stop.

Have just read daily mail sad face story about this happening to another family.

My sister and her husband have always claimed it. They have never had it questioned. I just wonder if HMRC are blanket mail sending and hoping people will be honest.

I genuinely had no idea about it until we got the letter. It also seems grossly unfair that two people can earn £49999 per year but if one person goes over it you have to repay it. In our case it was my husband who went over the threshold just slightly so we had to pay back from the day we moved in together.

Any one else?

I find it hard that people didn't know as there was plenty of communications sent at the time.

It cane in after I started claiming but I've never had a single letter or communication about it. The only reason I knew about it was because DH and I are both self employed so do SA returns and it specifically asks you.

But if we'd been employed and not doing SA returns then I wouldn't have had a clue!

It's a ridiculously unfair rule though - two people could earn £50k each with a combined household income of £100k and be entitled to the full amount.

Conversely a couple could have one person earning £60k and the other a SAHP but wouldn't be entitled to it.

Who the hell came up with that idea??

The information about the ‘little known rule’ is right there on the front page of the claim form...

I understand that the one family is in the news because they didn’t know about the company car pushing them over the limit. They can’t say they didn’t know about the rule in the first place when they’ve claimed for 2 children since it came in (and it was well publicised when their eldest was born as mine is the same age and I remember it well).

I know about it but only from reading on here. I disagree that it has been well publicised. If I hadn’t seen it on here I would know nothing about it. The story about the company car atm beggars belief and is so unfair. I don’t blame them at all for going to the press in an attempt to make some money. The fact that it can be affected by something like that is certainly not well publicised. It’s all very well saying it is on the forms but circumstances and rules change and people may have initially claimed years ago when it didn’t apply to them.

It is incredibly unfair.

@Racheyg - it's up to you to notify the CB office when one of you earns over £50k. If you are over the £50k, then I would notify them immediately. Ask your husband to keep his P60 and P111 forms handy. Or if he's self-employed, he can fill in a self-assessment tax return.

Like other posters have said, this was all over the media so it was very difficult to miss. I stopped claiming in Oct 2018 but have recently received a letter about paying some of it back as apparently I went over the £50k limit in two tax years (my bonus tipped me over). We went through my earnings on the phone and then I had to answer some questions. They asked me if I knew about the high income child benefit tax and I said yes, of course I bloody did, it was all over the media. After answering all the questions, they said 'Good news, you don't have to pay a fine'. My friend on the other hand said that she didn't know about the high income child benefit tax (even though she did) and then said she has to pay a fine. Hmmm.

Same situation, my children but oh over the threshold but definitely knew about it. It was all over the media and then he got a letter.

Very wrong that a step father should have to pay extra tax (continued to claim CB for NI) for children who are not his 3dp3vislky when their own father never paid a penny but that government for you!

People who do not want SAHPs and who want to force women into the workplace when they would rather be at home raising their children (and facilitating their husbands to earn more) thought it up I suspect.

I suspect you might be right there!

I agree with Suetheliar. It clear that if your income is over 50k there is a tax charge but it isn't clear that the figure includes salary and benefits in kind. I think this is where people are being caught out. When individuals think of income they think of the salary they are being paid and don't include other benefits like a company car (which is taxed anyway).

It was very well publicized when the changes came in.

And the outrage was and is understandable: it is completely unfair that households that earn just under £100k can keep, where both adults make less than £50k each, whereas a household where one adult makes just over £50k and the other adult earns nothing or very little means they lose it. Shocking disparity.

We got hammered by it, too. And have to pay it back every year.

I thought it was very well publicised. It was one of the coalition's attempts to look as though austerity was being shared out evenly. There was a lot of analysis.

I think it's a crude system. It's obviously caught out quite a few people and the administration of it is unwieldy and expensive, as is the reclamation when people mess up.

I'm not opposed to Child Benefit being universal and think they should put it back to where it was. There are plenty of other ways - that don't cost money to enforce - to raise similar sums from higher earners. A small rise in the upper limit of NI, for instance.

@mrslebon
dh started earning over £50,000 in July 2019

I have to disagree I don't think it was that well publicised.

Surely HMRC know how much we earn and claim. Looks like I'm going to have a long talk to CB department on Friday 😬

Yes I knew about the cap. Hence we have never claimed it. Yes I feel that's unfair, but more unfair if others in our position claim it and keep it when not entitled. Sorry a bit harsh

Yes I knew about it. It is covered regularly on the finance pages of the weekend papers.

I am a single mum who earns close to the limit. If I have a good year I go over, so I always make sure to pay more not my pension if that happens, to keep me below the earnings threshold.

The law is hopelessly unfair. But I also have a colleague who has avoided applying even though I’ve told him it means his wife is losing NI payments. He can’t be arsed to do the paperwork.

@Racheyg Your dh would register for self assessment and fill in a tax return in order to pay some child benefit back. Between £50-60k you pay a proportion back and once you reach £60k it all gets paid back

I seriously never saw it publicised. Where was it? I don’t read newspapers normally so wouldn’t have seen it there. And certainly it is not currently publicised. If you were not earning over £50k when it was publicised then you would perhaps not have paid attention. Years later you are not going to suddenly think... oh I just check my child benefit.

Maybe I just didn't pay attention thinking me or dh would never earn over £50k

Yes, I've paid it ever since my salary reached the threshold. Child benefit is paid to ex-wife but I earn over the threshold therefore have to pay the charge. (Daughter actually lives with me most of the time, but I'd still have to pay the charge if she was living with her mum.)

This year I managed to get my tax return in before the end of December so could get the charge added to PAYE deductions and spread it across the forthcoming year.

We were possibly aware at the time it came in but that was after I had started claiming for my DD and our earnings at the time were no where near the threshold so wasnt really on our radar.
However we have been caught out as DH was made redundant and his redundancy pay took him over the threshold for the year. At the time I think I was more concerned about a shock redundancy and the fact it took him nearly a year to get back into employment than the benefit charge that I may have been aware of from a newspaper article 7 years ago. We’re currently still waiting for HMRC to confirm how much we owe and how to pay it back.

Thanks @dementedpixie he earns £60k on the nose does that mean all of it back??

Another thing to note is that if you r a higher rate tax payer then you can claim the tax above 20% back on pension contributions in self assessment and this reduces how much child benefit we have to pay back.

Racheyg no need for a long chat with CB office. Your DH has earned over 50k since summer 2019 so that is the tax year we are still in meaning you aren't late in dealing with this or anything.

What he should do is register for self assessment then after April 6 2020 complete a tax return which will tell you how much to repay. Assuming income and benefits isn't over 60k he won't have to repay all the CB. Might be a good idea to set some aside for the repayment though.

dh started earning over £50,000 in July 2019

I have to disagree I don't think it was that well publicised.

@Racheyg - I think this is the nub of it: when the coalition introduced it (must be at least 5 years ago), it was well-publicised, and if you were a high-earner then receiving CB, then you would (should) have taken note and worked out how to pay it back. The problem is when years later, people like your DH start crossing the threshold, and these days there is no publicity: HMRC don't write annually to CB recipients to remind them to check, and they don't write to high earners to point out the possible issue.

Properbobbins it is horrible that even a redundancy payment is not exempt from it .

DadDadDad yes exactly.

I can't find my letter right now, but doesn't the annual letter telling you how much CB you're going to get mention the high income issue? I thought it did.
Those people who have chose not to claim- you're missing out on NI contribution protection if you're not working.
You'll have problems when it comes to retirement.